My London

Tue, 08 May 2012 14:20:09 +0000

This is almost certainly not the first article you will read about London, but perhaps yet another in a long series telling you what to visit in the city, how to get around or where to stay. In reality this time I don’t want to offer you a proper mini-guide to London; rather, I want to tell you about London as it appeared to my eyes and how I still feel its absence. London is in some respects the city of “opposites” — the city where you can choose to plunge into the frenzy of people, sounds and colours right in the centre between Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square; or to take refuge in search of peace and quiet in one of its many beautiful parks.

I remember in this regard one of the most beautiful Easter holidays I have ever spent, right in London, last year. It was Easter, 25 degrees, a warm and enveloping sun, and we — together with many other Londoners — lying on the grass of St. James’s Park, dozing and dreaming. It was not in the least the London I had so often read about: chaotic or noisy. Quite the contrary! It was like being in a different London, completely unlike how it is normally described; it was a calm, pleasant London, almost like a provincial town. London is the city that gives you the possibility of spending entire days immersed in art and culture, very often without paying a single pound. Places like the Tate Modern, or the immense British Museum, or the National Gallery are all absolutely free. Incredible works of art or entire periods of history made available to everyone, which you can choose to visit for whole days at a time. I remember the first day I arrived in London for the first time, on a morning in August many years ago — the very first sensation I felt, despite not knowing the city at all, was one of “home”. I knew nothing of London, beyond the few directions I had been given to reach the place where I would be staying. But its welcoming nature, its “internationality”, never truly made me feel like a foreigner.

Uk on nhaima

My London